Newsletter

Public comment on cabin closures to begin soon

The Forest Service has released an environmental assessment detailing its plans to remove nine infrequently used or dilapidated cabins in the Tongass National Forest, and to convert three more into three-sided shelters.

A 30-day comment period will begin as soon as the official notice is published in the Ketchikan Daily News, the Forest Service’s newspaper of record, which is scheduled to happen in early December.

This is will be the second comment period on this topic; the first was in the fall of 2012.

Forest Supervisor Forrest Cole said in a letter posted with the environmental assessment and supplemental materials that the most helpful comments would be site-specific, detailed, and relevant to the proposed action and alternatives listed in the environmental assessment.

After the public comment period ends, Cole will publish a draft decision. If any member of the public who has submitted specific written comments during the 30-day comment period objects to that decision and, within 45 days, asks for a “pre-decisional administrative review of the proposed project and activities,” the Forest Service will review its decision. That review’s findings will lead to a final decision, after which there is no appeal period.